First week of duty at school

Being on duty in a Ugandan school: ordering all latecomers to sweep the dirt and rubbish with their ‘stick brooms’ which creates a blanket of dust; ordering other late comers to mop the cement paths with buckets of water fetched by them (from the well) using old school jumpers; participating in a hair length inspection where all children with hair longer than a few millimetres had what locks they had hacked to ‘shame them’ into getting their heads shaved that night; then supervising those long-haired rebels to sweep and mop the pit latrines. I can’t describe the smell that lingers, especially on a hot day when only a small amount of diluted soap is used for cleaning. Thankfully my classrooms are on the other side of the school, but pity to the infant classes who face these overbearing pits.